Money Beat

It's about time, gains like we had in the last few years were over inflated.
Time for some good buys on vacation property. I'm hoping prices drop another 20% then buy, buy, buy!!

Look at the neighborhoods around your areas, they are DRENCHED with houses with barely any space between. There are just too many houses.

Buy low, sell high! The market should bottom in about a year.

They are going lower.

I've heard echoes that developers are going to start bulldozer'ing the houses they have setting empty. Where I live they are stuck with entire new neighborhoods full of them, and my state is not listed as one of the crisis states. Don't feel sorry for them though, because both Developers and the Realtors made out like bandits on the "sell houses to unqualified customers" boom. Many developers seen it winding down and didn't get stuck with a new subdivision.

I'll have to agree with czarrbizarre -- there are too many houses with too little space between them. I'm fortunate to live in a rural area. However, in other areas I've visited, I see houses that cost $500,000 and up where you can practically lean out the window and touch your neighbor's house. The housing market's been overly inflated for some time. It's about time for prices to come down.

we need to stop building and use what we have availble. the homes are to close together and with no yards or living space.

we need to stop building and use what we have availble. the homes are to close together and with no yards or living space.

Time to profit from the misery...

Glad I paid off my house in 2000!!!!!!!!!

Wow! Did someone sale fire sale for home prices?? I guess that means I can purchase a home for the cash I normally carry in my pocket!!! Oh boy!!!! Not....

well until prosperity returns to the workers. until the majority of workers in this ocuntry get healthcare for their families, and retirement beenfits they can depend on. Until wages increase and less peopel are living on McJobs this free fall will continue.

Middle class America is tapped out, and being taught that they can not depend on corproations to do the right thing, the government to do the right thing, and they have learned that AMerica does not have their best interest at heart... So they'll adjust, and that adjustment will mean a lot more deflation...

But....if the houses are too far apart, neighborhoods are not walkable and then you need to drive everywhere. There's a lot to be said for walking and chatting with neighbors as you pass by, it truly makes a neighborhood.

I live in Miami, Fl -The so called housing boom was so crazy they were selling homes in the inner city for $160,000 to $200,000. Everybody was getting loans and the wages in Miami for average people is horrible. Yet everyone was buying and the realtors kept telling us to buy now since the prices are only going to go up. Then I found out why the prices were going up. No one was really quilifying for these homes and now Miami is also in a mess. Greed from the mortgage brokers to the realtors and now they all are almost out of business. In Miami it was so messed up you could not find a fixer upper for under 100000.00

The housing market went through something similar to this in the 80's accept interest rates were at 18% then. The brain children who have been running this country for the past eight years have ignored the radical inflation within housing especially in areas like California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona. The let housing prices become so inflated that now a large sector of those areas are upside down in their mortgages. This is not anyone's problem accept those who in their greed bought into the scam of value and rapid appreciation. Those over valued properties will now have to adjust back down to reality. The actual crime of it all is that the homeowners will take the hit for a shame where professionals posing as realtors, bankers, mortgage lenders, appraisers and builders all perpetrated a fraud on the market.

The republican majority turned a blind eye to this radical inflation by keeping interest rates too low for too long only to simulate a robust economy. We were in economic trouble five years ago. But the republican politicians helped big business keep a lid on it so they could milk the last remaining profits by suckering the last fools into an irreparable debt structure to live beyond their means.

Now it's time for America to get honest. The value of a 2000 ft house in even the finest neighborhoods will have to adjust back to under $100 per ft before America is on good economic ground again.

The way Congress has handled these bail outs exemplify their foolishness. They are simply placing perception band aids over severed arteries and telling the public it will help. Hold on to your hat people...it's time for an integrity check throughout our system....

The vultures will be flocking in to prey on the losers many who were honestly innocent. I saw republicans make fortunes during the recession created by Ronald Reagan trickle down economics in the 80’s buying real estate for dimes on the dollar on the Court House steps. Once they got control of Washington they removed capital gains taxes and dumped these real estate empires on the market for dollars on the dime and did not pay any taxes on that enormous gain…. But all of this helps republicans to smile so grandly while in church every Sunday knowing well that they stole their wealth from the poor while masking it under the pretense of capitalism….

I live in Southern California and the prices are still way to high for anyone with median inclome to buy anything. How do they expect to unload these
still over-priced properties?
No bargains here.

We need more regulations on these predatory mortgage brokers. There also has to be more regulation on who gets granted credit. If this doesn't happen we'll all be back in the same mess in 7 or 8 years.

Is the "median" sales price a meaningful number? Does it reflect what is happening to the value of a particular house? I believe "median" means 1/2 of homes sold for a lower price and 1/2 of homes sold for a higher price. If the market sales only involve less expensive (smaller, older, etc) houses the "median" price goes down. This may or may not acurately reflect what is happening to the value of a particular house. Is there a better way to compare the real value of a house today vs the value of that house last year?

Congress needs to mandate an investigation into these scams and pour some money into regaining the integrity America once prided itself on. Business Professionals who have been paid enormous salaries all while that business crossed the line into criminal activity must now be prosecuted for those crimes. If these professionals who are nothing more than a bunch of White Collar criminals are not punished for their part in the upcoming economic crisis then it is a clear sign that America is headed into chaos like we have not seen since the Civil War. This time it will be the poor against the Wealthy....

Russia did not lose the Cold War. They went bankrupt. When crowds of poor began assembling at the gates of the Castles and Palaces Russian leaders realized that the poor were about to revolt and begin seizing the rich peoples' money so they could feed their families and heat their homes. The value of the Ruble went to a peso and the Russian economy collapsed. That is when they quit the Cold War, stopped building war machines and started catering to the poor peoples' needs very simply to prevent a total revolution during that economic collapse.

Our situation is so similar to Russia’s during the 80’s that Congress should take heed. There are by far many more poor people than there are wealthy. If Congress does not insist that criminals who held themselves out to be Professionals within an industry are held accountable for their malfeasance America is likely to see a revolt very similar to what occurred during Russia’s economic collapse....

Congress can prevent riots and chaos in the streets by demanding investigations into any and all criminal activity that is being written off as mismanagement.

Bailing out the corporate criminals is a slap in the face to honest working people that paid inflated prices while corporations squandered and embezzled the profits. We simply must live under some semblance of law and order. Otherwise America has lost all that the Founding Fathers tried desperately to assure.

Yes, but who wants to be like Russia. Moscow, now has the distinction of being the city with the highest cost of living in all the world per a survey that just came out and is posted on forbes.com, 42% higher than NYC. So it seems that all the world is on a roller coaster...

181,000 dollars is median house price....i cant afford to buy a 50,000 dollar house and i know that most people cant.

Prices on houses aren't dropping in Wichita Falls,Tex. where I live.The city appraised my home being worth $4000,00 more this year and every body working for city or county got a 5% raise in pay.

It's so good I would be buying right now if I was able to stomach paying a 3% premium to lenders over the 10yr treasury yield. They can forget that, though. I refuse. I'll have to let them clear out the suckers first.

...anybody stop to realize that, if it weren't for the easy credit (people buying $500K homes with no down and a $20K/year income), the housing prices would not have been so high in the first place? If things were right - no sub-prime/junk mortgages, people buying into the stupidity of ARMs, etc. then these homes would never have been so high...things whiplashing now. They will stabilize soon, but it is too bad for those who bought within the past 5 yrs or so.

Mortgage brokers lent to anyone who could fog a mirror.